An assessment of ZRA e-filing on tax compliance among SMEs in Zambia: a case study of Chirundu market.

Abstract

This study sought to evaluate the Zambia Revenue Authority e-filing on tax compliance among SMES in Zambia: a case study of Chirundu Market. The specific objectives were as follows; to establish the challenges SMEs encounter when e-filing of returns on Tax online, to assess the extent to which e-filing is correlated with tax compliance among SMEs’ and to determine the measures put in place to encourage e-filling and tax compliance among SMEs. The research applied a descriptive research design. 60 SMEs were interviewed from the four sets of respondents (SMEs). The researcher applied purposeful random sampling to give every member of the trading a chance to be interviewed and thus not produce biased or imbalanced data. A total of 60 questionnaires were distributed to small business owners registered with ZRA in Chirundu. Basing on the findings from the study, it was evident that the electronic tax filing system has not improved tax compliance as it is not easy for taxpayers to assess their tax obligation accurately and enable them to file their returns on time. The new system overwhelmed by the number of users consequently resulting into inconveniences. The study recommends that, ZRA should upgrade the e-tax servers to calm down the pressure on the current servers. In addition, ZRA should install user friendly features on the filing websites as to increase the taxpayers’ interest of use of the system.